By Prince Azubuike Esq

‘If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, GREAT IS OUR SINS’ – Charles Darwin (emphasis mine)

The corona virus pandemic has indeed impacted on all social fabric of our dear nation. One aspect of our lives that had been greatly impacted by this global pandemic is our educational system, and of course the Almajiri educational system has been singled out as arguably the worst hit and has awakened the call for we to appraise and re-evaluate the kind of education we are actually given out to our generation. For an educational system that does not equip the mind to be self-reliant and proffer challenges affecting the society is nothing short of slavery.

An Almajiri (feminine Almajira, plural Almajirai) is an Arabic word ‘Al-Muhajir’ which means a seeker of Islamic knowledge. Its origin can be traced from the migration of Prophet Mohammed (SAW) from Mecca to Medina. Those who migrated with the prophet to Medina were called ‘Al – Muhajirrun’ meaning migrants. The word Almajiri in Nigeria is used to refer to those who left their villages, towns, parents, relations and friends in search of Islamic knowledge and scholarship.

An Almajiri is usually expected to be educationally oriented in the tenets of Islam in his early childhood to groom him for a decent Muslim adulthood. But the common norm of Northern Nigeria today had deviated from this practice, giving way to a mob of bow-carrying children wandering the streets of Northern Nigeria and constituting nuisance to all and sundry. Begging is the most discomforting aspect of the Almajiri system as it brings the pupil out of the supervision of the mallams, singing and begging for food and money thus, exposing them to all manner of truancy and exploitations including but not limited to cultism, prostitution and terrorism.

Today, the Almajirai are victims of neglect, and the Covid – 19 pandemic have exposed the modus operandi of this kind of education and calling for a thorough rethinking on the way forward. In recent weeks, we have seen videos of these innocent teenagers expelled from their state of residence and as a result searching for means of securing the necessity of life.

In countries where accountability is the hallmark of leadership, political, military and economic leaders past and present from Northern Nigeria should be ashamed of what is happening in the region. For the most serious failure of leadership is the failure to foresee. The failure of Northern oligarchs to foresee the situation of the North today marks them out negatively in the field of leadership.

In the 60 years of our nationhood, persons of Northern extraction whether in military or civilian, have been in charge of the country’s political leadership for over 44 years in this order – Tafarwa Balewa, 6 years; Yakubu Gowon, 9 years; Murtala Ramat Mohammed, 1 year plus; Shehu Shagari, 4 years plus; Muhammadu Buhari, 2 years plus; Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, 8 years; Sani Abacha, 5 years; Abdusalam Abubakar, 1 year; Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 3 years; Buhari again, 5 years and still counting.

It would therefore be empirically safe to conclude that if the trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership, the region that has over 73% of political power control can be said to have contributed the significant chunk of it. What we are seeing today coming out from the North, bunch of Covid – 19 infected Almajirai being carried in containers like cargos and in trailers and lorries covered with animals in search of livelihood down south who were in power for only 16 years calls for a resetting of political leadership in the region and indeed in the country. It also underscores the fact that holding power is just self-aggrandizement of a few and not for the generality of the poor.

At independence in 1960, schools in the entire North was below 50 while over 800 existed in the South, yet there was no effort to close this gap. Today, out of the 79 private universities in the country, North-East and North-West have only five. It is high time the Almajiri educational system be scrapped in its entirety as it has not helped the children, it has not helped the states accommodating these Almajirai, and of course, it has not helped the country.

The situation of these children and by extension the entire north today attests to the fact that politics does not enhanced the livelihood of the people if it is not played with development in mind. It is now becoming manifest that all the resistance to political change from the region are self-driven by lazy political oligarchy clinging on to power and afraid of hard work and creativity which will be the basis of survival in a restructured Nigeria.

The dehumanizing pains that the Almajirai are currently going through across the country is clearly an outcome of failed leadership who closed their eyes to the fact of development and choose to engage in self-denial and deceit. Now reality have arrived.

It is from these Almajirai that herdsmen and bandits are harvested, terrorists and suicide bombers are recruited, and the Almajirai have been reduced to a time bomb only waiting to explode. I therefore call on the Northern leadership to change its strategy by closing down the Almajiiri school system in its entirety and empower these young lads with skills that will make them competitive in the 21st century Nigeria. If this is not done, we (North and South) will be consume in the impending disaster that is looming. For it is only a matter of time, and when that time comes, be rest assured I will run faster that Usain Bolt.

Prince Azubuike Esq., Partner, West Law Solicitors, Port Harcourt